Slashdot Mirror
Loki may port Starcraft and Diablo II
Michael Simms writes "According to an article in the Loki Requests newsgroup, Sam Lantinga, lead programmer for Loki Games states that
'We are going to try to do Starcraft and Diablo II as soon as we sell enough units to make it interesting to Blizzard'
One way to help to persuade Blizzard that they should work with Loki on this is to sign the Games Petitions Page run by Tux Games.
"
I've bought five games from Loki and Unreal Tournament because of the Linux support. Profit is the only real development which will prod games makers into supporting Linux over the long haul. I earn a good deal of money from my UNIX and Linux skills, so I'm in a position to use this to support those projects and companies promote those values and products I desire. If you're earning a good salery from this you should put your money where your signature is as well and go to the Loki web site and plunk some money down for that game you've always wanted under Linux.
:-)
There's one depressing problem with this... unfortunately Civ: Call To Power has kept me up to all hours destroying my daytime productivity. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Blizz will never port.
The reply that I got when I bothered them was "Well, all the Linux users have Windows too, so there's no reason to do a port."
Well, I don't have Windows, and I'm not going to buy any Windows games. The only O/S I've got is Linux, and so I'll just be happy with CIV:CTP until there's other good games avalible. (Yes, I know there's Quake III, but I don't like FPS's)
If all you other Linux gamers could do this too (only buy Linux games, ditch Windows or MacOS), then we'd see some more Linux games.
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
Anyway, the guys at the store thought Linux was a waste of shelf space for awhile at least until the base grew larger. I tried to explain but they were clueless.
</i>
Not, how many people buy Linux games compared to windows games? 0.001%?
Yeah, surely Linux will fix all her problems. She'll never have to ask you any computer related questions again!
First, I have top convince my MS-addicted friends that yes, there are such things as *spreadsheets* and *web browsers* for Linux. I find this gap in understanding amazing.
</i>
Yes, but StarOffice5.1 is no where near as advanced as Office 2000 still! Lack of antialising makes documents look horrible and ugly. And well, no need to coment on the web browsers available.
But you presume that Windows is unstable....so how is it that the games are stable? When it crashes, how do you know it's windows and not blizzard's games.
Everquest's cool, but if Wolf Pack pulls off what they're aiming for (and it's looking like they might...) you're going to want it over EQ. I'd be petitioning for EQ, but I'd also be petitioning for ShadowBane. There's a petition going on at one of the news sites. Go over there and put your vote in.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
For all those out there bitching over the $50 price tag on some of these Loki games, I note that EBWorld has several Loki titles for between $25 and $29... very reasonable. The games are Heretic II, Hero's of Might and Magic, and Railroad Tycoon. They did have Myth II for $25, but it looks like they've sold this out! Good.
My room mate keeps asking me her damn DOS questions (It's windows 98 but it's still DOS) and I got sick of dealing with the environment YEARS ago. Port Dungeon Keeper 2 and I'll be able to wipe 'doze off her system and install Linux. Please please PLEASE!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Slashdot is a good place to start looking on what is coming next...
Lea
I will never "buy" Starcraft for Linux. FGS, it's two years after they relased the game. That's an eternity in the gaming world. We asked Blizzard b4, and they said, "No, no market". Now that Starcraft is showing it's age they want to milk every single last ounce of profit for it.
NO, NO WAY....
I have my CD-KEY, and I bought Starcraft once it got out. So, if Blizzard really wants to show some goodwill, they better release the game binaries free to people who already have the windows version (Just do a CD-KEY check).
Most probably they won't since they got bought out by that big firm (that had a little problem with their accounting, hehehehe).
Then again if Diablo II for Linux is good, I might consider buying it, but I will never ever buy the same game twice so I can run it on two platforms.
Games I can do without, especially those from companies that don't give about anything other than their bottom line.
:. Ultimate Control Dedicated/VM Servers
(It's hard enough avoiding "nethack".)
Tell me about it! NetHack is the best game ever made. Well, it would be, if it were multiplayer... I've thought about tackling that challenge, but then I realize it's like 3MB (compressed) of source code... hmmm... no, not right now... Though, I've also heard of efforts to do nasty things like add a 3D graphical interface to nethack, which makes me sick. That defeats the purpose! As I envision multiplayer nethack, each player would simply be an @ symbol, and you'd have multiple @s on the screen at once (provided you could see each other). I have no idea how difficult this would be to implement. You'd have to have some sort of server keep track of the maps... and the fact that the game is basically turn based makes things even more difficult. Oh well, probably never happen.
Supreme Lord High Commander of the Interstellar Task Force for the Eradication of Stupidity
Will people please just use a little bit of thought before they moderate?
(Is it just me, or does (html tags to text) no longer work)?
The cake is a pie
I was just thinking how I need to use less wine with my games. This would help a lot... :)
I ran StarCraft under wine, it worked very well except that I never got the multiplayer to work, but that was with wine about a year ago. I'm sure that it would work now.
But isn't Starcraft a little old? Does it still have a huge number of players? I dunno, but I would imagine that there are probably more profitable games Loki could do.
You know, I put together my Linux box because I kept telling myself "Self, you should really stop wasting all that time playing games, and do some real programming and stuff". So I get the linux box. I download egcs. I start throwing some stuff together.
And what happens?
I download a bunch of demos from Loki. Have I done anything worthwhile since? No...
Now they are porting the sequel to one of the most addictive games I've ever played ("Diablo") and the successor to one of the other most addictive games I've ever played ("Alpha Centauri", the true successor to "Civilization II").
Bastards. Now I'm never going to get anything real done.
All I can say is that it is a damn good thing I can't play these things in a telnet session, or I wouldn't get anything done at work, either. (It's hard enough avoiding "nethack".)
The cake is a pie
...is Sim City 3000. Sure, it's a challenge, but it is the best game EVER.
--
Matt Singerman
Matt Singerman
http://matt.vegan.net/
First, I have top convince my MS-addicted friends that yes, there are such things as *spreadsheets* and *web browsers* for Linux. I find this gap in understanding amazing.
Then I have to convince them that, while some dists are very hard to install, others will hold your hand. This, to me, is a very valid concern from the point of view of Joe AOL and Marsha MS. [Ed: May not be actual people, but demeaning archetypes.] But there are answers here, too.
But it's very tough to come up with a satisfying response to the people who won't switch over until they can get some games. Games are as important, in terms of comforting the average user, as many other features they think about when they compare two oses (even when the comparison isn't accurate). The more games that get ported, the better it is for us, of course, and the better it is for the general acceptability of the os.
Of course, the trick is not to be as snobby as we sometimes are with regards to other issues. Sure, starcraft is the greatest rts game in history, and unreal the greatest fps, but those deer-hunting games sell. Point being, we should watch the snide remarks when Game Hunter XLVII gets ported, cause it's a stupid game, but it's indicative of the fact that Linux is winning market share, which, i think we can agree, is a good thing, relatively speaking.
god is just pretend.
Well, basically this means that we need to by loki games and let them get some figures to show Blizzard. Now, personally, I think Quake3 will be the vehicle. It just has the best chance, not these (sorry, Loki, I still love you guys) older, almost second tier games. Heavy gear 2 will be a good one, but it is not a Quake game. It might also be time for us to revisit the linux advocacy how-to and not say mean things to Blizzard demanding games. A tasteful email to them would be in order, something to the effect that you are a gamer and you have bought such and such games from blizzard, and love their company, and would like to see them have linux ports, or allow Loki (who has done an excellent job) to. In some sense we need a CONTROLLED slashdot effect on blizzard.
;)
You have no idea (well maybe you do) of how much I want Diablo 2 for linux. As with everyone and his brother, I swore to remove windows from my machine if they ported it. The reason is because it is big enough that Linux will have a slew of games out by the time I am done
-- Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him? --
For anyone interested in linux games, point your news-reader to news.lokigames.com and keep track there. You can also get some good support on install/running problems on their games.
--
Looking at the WINE app database it appears that Starcraft runs pretty well under WINE. This makes me wonder if the port could be done simply by using WINElib and fixing the few remaining bugs (mainly multiplayer stuff) that may be left. Any thoughts?
I'm a longtime regular on the Battle.net (aka Blizzard) forums, and I guess this means that someone was paying attention. Its quite a regular thing seeing requests posted in the War Room asking for Starcraft/Broodwar/Diablo II to be ported over. The usual answer they get is "When there is enough marketshare, I'm sure Blizzard will", because they always port stuff over to Mac, eveuntally. Honestly, Diablo II is one that seems a lot more likely then Starcraft, considering how old Starcraft is now. But its still the best RTS game out there, no matter how old it is. Does anyone remember the game that was supposed to kill it? No? It was called Tiberian something... well whatever it was called isn't important. The problem with porting Starcraft is that a lot of the playerbase of people who want it ported already have Windows versions and either dual boot or play in WINE. So are these people who are asking for it actually willing to buy it *again* just to have a native linux version? Thats the real question with Starcraft.. not how many new players you can get that way (which isn't enough), but how many existing ones will buy it again to get a linux version. Its the existing ones who ask for a port. Diablo II on the other hand is another story, and could very well get ported happily. (ps - I saw another post where someone complaiend about how long DII is taking... all I have in reply is this: Do you want a bug riddled game released now, or a kick ass one released later? Personally, I'd rather not have to download an 18mb patch just to make the game playable out of the box)
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
You have to like Strategy games to like Starcraft... if you like action oriented games (like quake), look elsewhere. Personally I find quake to be interesting for about five seconds. But a good hour long game of Broodwar (thats the Starcraft Expansion) just leaves me wanting a rematch.
The reason why Starcraft is considered by many as the best RTS ever is a combination of things... the game comes with a kick ass map editor. Combined with other tools, you can make entire campaigns and do TC's and the like, not many other RTS's even come close to the level of editing you can do to Starcraft.
They actually managed to create three totally different yet basically equal races, so that as any one race you have a chance of beating any other race (assuming the players are the same skill level).
The game is actually *strategy* oriented. Try using a strategy that involves simply making lots of units and attacking (like you can do in C&C type games) a good player. They will absolutly shread you if they use any kind of actual strategy. Thats not because defenses are really strong, actually they are rather weak. Its because massing units doesn't work that well against experienced players, you need to actually have some level of strategy to beat them.
The singleplayer storyline actually exists and is actually good (especially in Broodwar). I know the idea of a storyline might be a stretch to any first person shooter fans, but it certainly adds something to the game.
Thats about all I can think of right now. But you really do have to be a fan of RTS games to like Starcraft, there is more then just killing stuff involved, so FPS fans will probably not like it.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
I know, I know, they need more sales until Blizzard will even think of it, but still, just the idea that they're aware of the Linux audience is a good sign.
I recall that, of the games mentioned in the recent "What games would you love to see ported", Starcraft and Diablo were right up there, as well as future Blizzard endeavors. There's definitely a market.
And finally, on a more personal note, I got back from Electronics Boutique today, and I've been playing Heroes of Might and Magic III all day
Ahh, the beauty of games for Linux....
-Denor
If you like Windows for gaming, disregard this post. :)
I bought Myth II for Linux a month ago and loved it! It runs fast, the graphics are great and best of all, no crashing! I am planning on buying one Linux game a month.
If you want to game on Linux _now_ is the time to buy a Linux game. You know you want to...
And just think that you can justify the purchase to your significant other. "But I have to buy a Linux game to help all the other people out!"
Buying a Linux game is alturistic, because if Loki sells enough games, then future games will come out for Linux at the same time as Windows. They don't care what OS they sell their games on, only that the games that they sell make money.
So help everyone out and buy a Linux version of a game today. (And have fun playing those games!)
Look out Civ, here I come!
-- Never make a general statement.
> This is somewhat old news for anyone who's been keeping track on the loki.requests
:-(
... but without the sale figure, its hard.
I emailed Loki this week asking what the sales of Linux games was, and they said it was under NDA.
I'm still trying to convince management that its a good thing to port our game to Linux though
Cheers
Michael
3d game programmer
"Anyone who can't laugh at himself is not taking life seriously enough." - Larry Wall
I remember reading, dont' know if it was from Loki's newgroup, linuxgames.com, or maybe even a slasdot post. But Blizzard said they would have linux ports when Loki's sales reached 50,000 units a game.
Whether that's true or not, I don't know. But it does bringup and interesting question. How many games HAS Loki sold? I mean, I'd assume 50,000 linux users(me being one of them)bought Quake 3 Arena. And I know there has to be 50,000 linux users in the world that want Sim City 3000.
It also brings up a second question. Do linux gamers buy games they wouldn't have normally bought JUST to get the sales figures up so games they DO want get released? That's a big weight on a comsumers sholders. The idea of "If you don't buy game x which you don't like, you may not game y which you been waiting for for over a year" is not one many people want to be put in, including myself.
I've bought Quake 3 Arena, I'm looking forward to Sim City 3000, and I'll buy what good games come out for linux that I want to play. I won't be forced into buying a $50 game that I don't like to "maybe" get a port of a game I do.
I look at some of these games and the average suggested price of many are over $50!!
This isn't flamebait, but my opinion, I am not able to pay more than about $25 for ANY game, or for that matter any software in general. I am a student, and on a budget. The end result of this is I get a game that's been out for a while and everybody else has mastered it already, I get my A** kicked a few dozen times at it, then I am a competitive player, if I play networked, or I play the scenarios and then decide I don't want to play any further. In this case I pass the game on to one of my friends, lock, stock and barrel.
This is my opinion, there are laws against being killed for having one.
Laugh, it's good for you!
Keep trying though, the voting isnt going anywhere!
Tux Games. Your complete source for native Linux games.